In his latest public interest litigation, the advocate asked the top court to restrain the finance minister from using RBI capital reserves.

The Supreme Court on Friday imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 on advocate ML Sharma for filing “frivolous” public interest litigation, Bar & Bench reported. A bench led by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi criticised Sharma for filing a petition that sought to restrain Finance Minister Arun Jaitley from using the Reserve Bank of India’s capital reserves and dismissed the plea, PTI reported.

“Mr Sharma, the day has come to ban you from filing PILs,” Gogoi said.

The chief justice said that while Sharma had “done some good work” his petitions ruin his reputation and prompt courts to refrain from entertaining him when he files good cases. “You have done some good work and we all acknowledge that. Why are you persisting on destroying your reputation? What kind of prayer is this – to restrain Finance Minister from using capital reserves of RBI?”

In 2015, RM Lodha, who was chief justice at the time, had fined the advocate penalties of Rs 25,000 and Rs 50,000 on two separate occasions. The Supreme Court had also issued a show-cause notice to Sharma for making “scandalous and irresponsible” allegations against Members of Parliament.

Sharma has filed a few prominent public interest litigations in the last few months.